“It is I” or “It is me”: The Grammatical Confusion between Objects and Complements

I started today quite well. The thrill and joy of traveling to the University of Lagos fondled themselves in me as I squeezed myself into the bus bombarded with students like me. It would have been an interesting journey if one of the students sitting beside me had not poked her mouth into my ears and made me suffer the trauma of a grammatical mistake.

Her friend — supposedly — had asked her if she was the one who called her name. She brought her lips across my head, mouthing a heavy “it was me” right through her breath. I couldn’t help but feel the heavy drop of the trauma that swelled up in my head. This brings up the question, “It is I” or “It is me”?

One of the things that should be foregrounded is the fact that each of the types of verbs in the English language has different effects on the noun/pronoun that comes after them. So to say, it is either a verb makes a noun/pronoun a complement or an object. How then does one decide which is a complement of a verb, and which is an object of a verb?

There are different types of verbs, ranging from lexical verbs, fientive verbs, stative verbs, auxiliary verbs, linking verbs, transitive and intransitive verbs, finite and non-finite verbs, etc. Each of these verbs has contents in themselves — meaning, while some of them express actions; some of them express a state rather than an action. The focus, however, among all of these verbs will be on the “linking verbs”.

What is A Linking Verb?

A linking verb, unlike other types of verbs, does not show action. Rather, it expresses details about the subject of the sentence that comes before it. It foregrounds the state of the subject, so to say. It is, therefore, noteworthy to say that every noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that comes after a linking verb will never be marked as an object, but rather as a complement. This, in the real sense, is a result of the fact that it is not reflecting the action of the subject but, instead, completing the state of the subject. 

In the English language, there are basically three linking verbs: become, seem, and be. However, it doesn’t stop there. There exist the sensory linking verbs too which are quite a number (appear, smell, feel, look, sound, taste). Meaning, the nouns or pronouns that follow these verbs are complements. Albeit, there are some exceptions since some of these verbs can perform the functions of verbs expressing both actions and state. It all depends on what comes after.

“It is me” or “It is I”

Having discussed some of the linking verbs there are, we should move back to the point of focus. Why is “it is me” a wrong expression? 

Every be verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been) is followed by a complement, not an object. So, these examples should be considered:

1. It is I (complements are always in the subjective form, not in the objective form. So, one uses the subjective pronoun I rather than the objective pronoun me).

2. I am Saheed (“Saheed” here is a complement, not an object).

3. You are a man. (The noun phrase, a man, is a complement, not an object).

Having considered all of these examples, we have been introduced to why “it is me” is erroneous, since is is supposedly a linking verb, and linking verbs are always in the subjective form, not in the objective form. The next time you, too, might need to speak in public, remember to keep the correct form of the expression in mind to not allow another person suffer trauma from your abrupt response(s).